Each panel below is a working miniature of a site that could run at this address: navigation, hero, product screen and proof numbers, followed by a plain note on how that business would position the name. All twenty stay on screen at all times; a lane simply marks its own. The domain sits in the browser bar of every one of them, whole and unbroken, because the name is the thing being sold.
01
Four Numbers, Not an Adjective
The federal government already defined near
GetFoodNearMe
ThresholdsMethodSource
See the four
Half a mile.
One. Ten. Twenty.
The Department of Agriculture measures access to a foodstore at four fixed distances and has done so across every version of its atlas. Those four numbers are what near means when a federal agency has to write it down.
FOOD ACCESS RESEARCH ATLAS · DOCUMENTATIONQUOTED
Access polygons were produced “at four distance thresholds: 0.5, 1, 10, and 20 miles, consistent with prior versions of the ERS Food Access Research Atlas.”
URBAN, TO ONE MILE
0.5 mi1 mi
RURAL, TO TWENTY MILES
10 mi20 mi
Each rail runs on its own scale. Side by side on one scale the urban pair would sit inside the first twentieth, which is the point.
PAGE UPDATED 27 JULY 2026NOT PARAPHRASED
4distance thresholds
0.5 mithe shortest
20 mithe longest
How they position itA category built on the word near should open with the four numbers the government uses for it. Nobody in this market cites them, and they are free.
02
Where the Line Is Drawn
Urban and rural are a population count, not a feeling
GetFoodNearMe
UrbanRuralTract
Read the rule
Two thousand
five hundred people.
Which pair of distances applies to a place is decided by a headcount. A census tract counts as urban if its geographic center sits in an area of more than 2,500 people. Everything else is rural.
LARGE RETAILER ACCESS MAP · REFERENCE GUIDEURBAN / RURAL STATUS
“A census tract is urban if the geographic centroid of the tract is in an area with more than 2,500 people; all other tracts are rural.”
URBAN> 2,500MEASURED AT 0.5 AND 1 MILE
RURAL< 2,500MEASURED AT 10 AND 20 MILES
AND A TRACT IS“a small statistical subdivision of a county that usually contains between 1,200 and 8,000 people.”
THE SAME WORD MEANS TWENTY TIMES THE DISTANCE DEPENDING ON THE SIDEONE HEADCOUNT DECIDES
2,500the threshold
Centroidwhat is tested
1,200-8,000people per tract
How they position itA locator product that knows which rule applies to which tract is doing something a map pin cannot. The name is the front door to that.
03
Five Hundred People or a Third
What makes a tract low access, in the agency's words
GetFoodNearMe
AccessIncomeTest
Read the test
At least 500,
or 33 percent.
A tract is flagged when enough of its people are beyond the distance. The income half of the test is borrowed whole from a Treasury tax-credit program, which is why the definition holds up in a grant application.
LOW-INCOME AND LOW-ACCESS, 1 AND 10 MILESVERBATIM
“A low-income tract with at least 500 people, or 33 percent of the population, living more than 1 mile (urban areas) or more than 10 miles (rural areas) from the nearest supermarket, supercenter, or large grocery store.”
LOW INCOME, TEST ONEPOVERTY RATE 20 PERCENT OR GREATER
LOW INCOME, TEST TWOMEDIAN FAMILY INCOME AT OR UNDER 80 PERCENT OF STATE
LOW INCOME, TEST THREEOR 80 PERCENT OF THE METRO AREA
WHERE THE INCOME TEST COMES FROMThe Treasury Department’s New Markets Tax Credit program, adopted by USDA rather than invented.
FOUR LILA DEFINITIONS EXIST, NOT ONENAME THE THRESHOLD EVERY TIME
500people, or
33%of the tract
20% / 80%the income test
How they position itAnyone selling into food access has to write this test into a grant narrative. A page that already quotes it correctly has done the first hour of that work.
04
How Far the Median American Lives
The distribution, not the anecdote
GetFoodNearMe
MedianSpreadShare
See the spread
Point eight eight
of a mile.
In 2019 the median distance from an American to the nearest supermarket, supercenter or large grocery store was under nine tenths of a mile. Two in five people lived more than a mile away.
DISTANCE TO THE NEAREST FOODSTORE · 2019PERCENT OF PEOPLE
UNDER 0.5 MILE30.3%
0.5 TO 1 MILE29.9%
MORE THAN 1 MILE39.8%
20th0.31 miMEDIAN0.88 mi80th2.20 mi
FOODSTORE MEANS SUPERMARKET, SUPERCENTER OR LARGE GROCERY STOREAS DEFINED
0.88 mithe median
0.31 mi20th percentile
2.20 mi80th percentile
How they position itEvery pitch in this category asserts that people are far from food. This card puts the actual distribution on the table, which is a different and better conversation.
05
The Map Has Money Attached
Grant eligibility is keyed to the same tracts
GetFoodNearMe
ProgramEligibleStatute
Follow the money
Eligibility
reads off the map.
A federal financing program for food retail defines who can apply by pointing at the same low-income low-access tracts. That is the difference between a definition and a decoration.
HEALTHY FOOD FINANCING INITIATIVE · ELIGIBLE AREASQUOTED
“Those in USDA’s Low Income, Low Access census tracts”
“Census tracts adjacent to USDA’s Low Income, Low Access census tracts, with median family incomes equal to or less than 120 percent of the area median family income”
STATUTE7 U.S.C. 6953FARM BILL2014, REAUTHORIZED 2018
THE ATLAS IS NOT A RESEARCH CURIOSITYIT IS AN ELIGIBILITY MAP
7 USC 6953the authority
2014first authorized
120%the adjacency rule
How they position itA buyer working in food access needs one address that says the definition and the money in the same breath. This is that address.
06
The Distance Did Not Change
July 2026, and almost nobody has noticed
GetFoodNearMe
StraightDrivingDelta
See both counts
Two thousand
three fifty-six.
Six thousand
three oh one.
USDA now publishes the same low-access measure two ways: as the crow flies and along the road network people actually drive. Same threshold, same year, same tracts. The second number is 2.7 times the first.
LOW INCOME AND LOW ACCESS AT 1 AND 10 MILES · 2025 SRAMOUR TABULATION
AS THE CROW FLIES2,356TRACTS8,116,934 PEOPLE
ALONG THE ROAD NETWORK6,301TRACTS21,751,087 PEOPLE
WHAT CHANGEDNOT THE DISTANCE. THE ROUTE.
COUNTED FROM USDA’S OWN PUBLISHED 2025 DATA FILE, NOT FROM A REPORTWE SAY SO
2,356tracts, straight line
6,301tracts, driving
2.7xthe difference
How they position itThis is the fact the whole category is missing. A product that measures the drive rather than the radius can point at a federal dataset that already agrees with it.
07
Fifty Meters for the Driveway
Why the road network alone was not enough
GetFoodNearMe
NetworkBufferTool
Read the method
No driveways.
No parking lots.
A road network does not contain the last fifty feet of anybody's trip. USDA said so and added a buffer at each threshold rather than pretending the problem away. That is what a serious distance measure looks like.
NETWORK-BASED DRIVING DISTANCE METHODSQUOTED
“the road network does not include home driveways or store parking lots”
0.5 AND 1 MILE50 METER BUFFER
10 AND 20 MILES250 METER BUFFER
ROUTING ENGINEESRI NETWORK ANALYST, CUSTOM ROADS 2026
“Network distances represent the driving path from where people live to the nearest SNAP-authorized food retailer.”
THE GAP BETWEEN A MAP AND A TRIP IS AN ENGINEERING PROBLEMNAMED, THEN SOLVED
50 mbuffer at 0.5 and 1 mile
250 mbuffer at 10 and 20
2026the road data
How they position itA technical buyer reads this card and knows the seller understands routing rather than pins. That is worth more than any adjective on a landing page.
08
One Hundred and One Stores
Places the road network could not reach at all
GetFoodNearMe
ExcludedWhereWhy
See the exceptions
Ninety-seven
of them in Alaska.
When USDA routed to every SNAP-authorized retailer, a small number could not be reached by road at all. The agency published the count and the reasons rather than dropping them quietly.
STORES NOT REACHABLE BY THE ROAD NETWORKQUOTED
101SNAP-AUTHORIZED RETAILERS
97 IN ALASKA
THE OTHER FOUR ARE IN THE CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES
Road segments not accessible year-round
Vehicle traffic not permitted
Store located more than one kilometer from the road network
A ROUTING PRODUCT LIVES OR DIES ON THE CASES IT CANNOT ROUTETHESE ARE PUBLISHED
101stores unreachable
97in Alaska
4in the lower 48
How they position itEdge cases are where a locator earns trust. A page that opens with the published ones is talking to whoever has to handle them.
09
All Four, Both Ways
Every threshold moves the same direction
GetFoodNearMe
CompareThresholdsPeople
Compare all four
Every threshold,
the same story.
The routing difference is not an artifact of one cutoff. Run all four of the agency's definitions and the driving measure is larger every time, by between two and a half and three times on tract counts.
LILA TRACTS, 2025 SRAM · STRAIGHT LINE AGAINST DRIVINGOUR TABULATION
THRESHOLDSTRAIGHTDRIVINGRATIO
1 and 10 miles2,3566,3012.7x
0.5 and 10 miles10,05016,1571.6x
1 and 20 miles2,1005,7802.8x
Vehicle access and 202,1944,6422.1x
Frame: 84,119 census tracts, 62,463 urban and 21,656 rural, of which 33,777 are flagged low income.
COUNTED FROM THE PUBLISHED FILE; USDA HAS ISSUED NO NATIONAL SUMMARY FOR ITLABELED AS OURS
4 of 4thresholds move
16,157the largest driving count
51.5Mpeople at that one
How they position itFour numbers moving the same way is an argument. One number moving is an anecdote, and a buyer knows the difference.
10
What the Atlas Does Not Cover
The agency's own limitations, printed
GetFoodNearMe
ExcludedHomeGap
Read the limits
No restaurants.
Home only.
USDA states two limits plainly. Its measure covers stores, not prepared food, and it measures the trip from home and nowhere else. Both of those exclusions are a market.
FOOD ACCESS RESEARCH ATLAS · LIMITATIONSTHE AGENCY’S OWN
“FARA does not include restaurants, fast food outlets, and food service establishments because their prepared foods have higher costs per unit relative to food retailers.”
“FARA exclusively considers access to stores from consumers’ homes and does not consider the potential access to food that consumers have when they travel to school, work, or other activities.”
WHAT IS LEFT UNMEASURED701,875 FOOD SERVICE PLACES, AND EVERY TRIP THAT DOES NOT START AT HOME
THE LIMITS ARE WHERE A PRIVATE PRODUCT HAS SOMETHING TO SELLSO WE PRINT THEM
0restaurants counted
Homethe only origin
2stated limits
How they position itThe federal measure stops exactly where a commercial one starts. Owning the plain-language name for the whole question is the point.
11
Two Hundred Forty-Nine Thousand
Every store authorized to accept SNAP, by type
GetFoodNearMe
RetailersTypesFile
Break it out
Forty-seven percent
are convenience stores.
USDA publishes the name, type, address and coordinates of every retailer authorized to accept SNAP. Counted by store type, the shape of American food retail is not what a category map usually shows.
SNAP-AUTHORIZED RETAILERS · CURRENT AS OF 31 DEC 2025OUR COUNT OF THE FILE
CONVENIENCE STORE117,045
COMBINATION GROCERY58,546
SUPER STORE20,604
SUPERMARKET19,538
MEDIUM GROCERY11,508
FARMERS MARKET3,464
THE TWO CATEGORIES A SHOPPER PICTURESSupermarkets and super stores together are 40,142 stores, 16.1 percent of the authorized total.
USDA PUBLISHES THE FILE; THE TOTALS HERE ARE OUR TABULATION OF ITNOT AN AGENCY FIGURE
249,063authorized retailers
47.0%convenience stores
16.1%supermarket or super store
How they position itA locator is only as good as its store taxonomy. Starting from the federal one, with the counts, is a credible way to open that conversation.
12
Ten Checkout Lanes
The federal definition of a supermarket
GetFoodNearMe
DefinitionsCodesUse
Read the code
The government
counts the lanes.
USDA maintains seventeen store-type codes with written definitions. The supermarket definition comes down to a physical description that any field team could apply, which is why it is useful to a product.
SNAP STORE DEFINITIONS · USDA FOOD AND NUTRITION SERVICEVERBATIM
SUPERMARKET (SM)“This store typically has ten or more checkout lanes with registers, bar code scanners, and conveyor belts.”
SUPER STORE (SS)“Very large supermarkets, ‘big box’ stores, super stores and food warehouses…”
CONVENIENCE STORE (CS)“Self-service stores that offer a limited line of convenience items and are typically open long hours to provide easy access for customers.”
SEVENTEEN CODES, EACH WITH A WRITTEN TESTA TAXONOMY YOU CAN BUILD ON
17store type codes
10+checkout lanes, supermarket
SM / SS / CSthe three big codes
How they position itEveryone in this market invents a store taxonomy. There is already a federal one with definitions, and it is the one the payment rails use.
13
Seven Hundred Thousand Places to Eat
The economic census, and what it counts
GetFoodNearMe
CountsReceiptsYear
See the census
Nine hundred
billion dollars.
The 2022 Economic Census counted every food service and drinking place and every grocery and convenience retailer in the country, with receipts. These are the denominators any claim in this category should be checked against.
2022 ECONOMIC CENSUS · UNITED STATESEMPLOYER ESTABLISHMENTS
NAICSSECTORESTABLISHMENTSRECEIPTS
722Food services and drinking places701,875$900.6B
722511Full-service restaurants254,201$372.8B
722513Limited-service restaurants271,243$358.9B
4451Grocery and convenience retailers101,624$855.9B
Employer establishments only, so every figure here is a floor rather than a total.
THE NEXT ECONOMIC CENSUS IS 2027THIS IS THE CURRENT ONE
701,875food service places
$900.6Btheir receipts
101,624grocery and convenience
How they position itAny deck in this category quotes a trade association. A page that quotes the Economic Census instead is talking to the person who checks.
14
The Convenience Store Trap
Where three quarters of the channel is hiding
GetFoodNearMe
CodesFuelTotal
See the split
Thirty-two thousand,
or a hundred and thirty.
Under the current classification a convenience store attached to fuel is counted somewhere else entirely. Quote one code and you understate the channel by roughly four times, which is the kind of error a buyer will find.
2022 ECONOMIC CENSUS · TWO CODES, ONE CHANNELREAD BOTH
445131Convenience retailers32,311
45711Gasoline stations with convenience stores99,620
THE HONEST TOTAL131,931 ESTABLISHMENTS
Either quote both codes or quote neither. One alone is a number that reads as English and is not.
CLASSIFICATION TRAPS ARE WHERE CATEGORY PAGES GET CAUGHTSO WE NAME THIS ONE
32,311NAICS 445131
99,620NAICS 45711
~4xthe understatement
How they position itKnowing which code hides the fuel-attached stores is the sort of detail that separates an operator from a deck. The name is the easy part to remember.
15
The Markup That Exists
What is actually documented, and what is not
GetFoodNearMe
TypesGoogleLimits
Read the docs
Restaurant sits
under LocalBusiness.
The vocabulary has a clean chain for this category and Google documents one rich result on top of it. It is the local business panel, not a restaurant feature, and knowing the difference is worth stating.
SCHEMA.ORG TYPE CHAINRELEASE v30.1
Restaurant→FoodEstablishment→LocalBusiness→Organization + Place
REQUIRED BY GOOGLEaddressname
RECOMMENDEDmenu · servesCuisine · geo · openingHoursSpecification · priceRange · telephone · aggregateRating
WHAT IS NOT DOCUMENTEDNO STANDALONE RESTAURANT RICH RESULT, AND NO MENU FEATURE
GOOGLE DESCRIBES ONE LOCAL BUSINESS FEATURE, LAST UPDATED SEPTEMBER 2026WE LINK IT
v30.1schema.org release
2required properties
1documented rich result
How they position itA directory product lives inside this vocabulary. Getting the chain and the limits right on the sale page tells a technical buyer what kind of seller they are dealing with.
16
The Inversion
Households without a car live closest
GetFoodNearMe
VehiclesDistanceRead
Read it again
Fifty-four
against twenty-nine.
The obvious story is that people without cars are stranded far from food. The federal distribution says the opposite about distance: households with no vehicle are far more likely to live within half a mile of a store.
SHARE WITHIN HALF A MILE OF A FOODSTORE · 2019NOT THE OBVIOUS STORY
HOUSEHOLDS WITH NO VEHICLE54.0%
HOUSEHOLDS WITH A VEHICLE28.9%
WHAT IS STILL TRUEAbout 1,970,071 housing units, 1.7 percent of the national total, are both more than half a mile from a store and without a vehicle. Distance and hardship are related, but they are not the same variable, and this page does not pretend they are.
DENSITY PUTS STORES AND CARLESS HOUSEHOLDS IN THE SAME PLACESTHE DATA SAYS SO
54.0%no vehicle, within 0.5 mi
28.9%with a vehicle
1.7%far and without one
How they position itA card that corrects the intuitive version of its own market is the one a policy buyer forwards. It is also the hardest kind of card to fake.
17
Two Maps, Not One Trend
The comparison that looks obvious and is wrong
GetFoodNearMe
SRAMLRAMWhy
See the difference
These numbers
do not subtract.
The atlas now holds two maps built on different store universes, different tract boundaries and different censuses. Putting the 2019 count next to the 2025 count and calling the gap a trend would be flatly wrong, so this page never does it.
WHY THE TWO MAPS DO NOT SUBTRACTA TRAP
LRAM 2019SRAM 2025
Store universeSupermarkets, supercenters, large groceryNearly all SNAP-authorized retailers
Tract boundaries2010 census tracts2020 census tracts
Population base2010 Census2020 Census plus LandScan
Store list dateJune 2019June 2025
USDA warns of temporal misalignment in its own documentation. Each figure on this page is labeled with its map and its year.
NEXT LRAM UPDATE EXPECTED WINTER 2026-27WE WILL DATE THAT TOO
2019the large retailer map
2025the SNAP retailer map
0valid comparisons
How they position itWhoever buys this address will be tempted to publish exactly that false comparison. Putting the trap on the sale page is the most useful thing here.
18
The Number Everyone Still Quotes
Seventeen years old, and differently defined
GetFoodNearMe
OriginBasisToday
Check the vintage
Twenty-three
point five million.
The figure that circulates in this category comes from a 2009 report to Congress, computed on the 2000 Census against a low-income test USDA no longer uses. The same report narrows it to 11.5 million two sentences later.
THE 23.5 MILLION FIGURE, TRACEDDO NOT PRINT IT AS CURRENT
2009Report to Congress publishes 23.5 million, on 2000 Census population of 279.6 million
2009The same report: “11.5 million people, or 4.1 percent” on the narrower test
2011Food Desert Locator released
2013Renamed the Food Access Research Atlas
2026Renamed again, and a second map added
The 2009 low-income test was areas where more than 40 percent of people were at or under 200 percent of poverty. Today the test is the Treasury one. Different definition, different census, different number.
USDA PUBLISHES FOUR MEASURES, AND NEVER ONE HEADLINE NUMBER11 TO 27 PERCENT IS THE HONEST RANGE
2009the report
2000the census behind it
11.5Mits own narrower figure
How they position itCorrecting the one statistic every competitor repeats is the cheapest authority available in this category, and almost nobody spends it.
19
What the Register Shows
Including the application that is live right now
GetFoodNearMe
RecordSplitRisk
Read the record
Registered, refused,
and pending.
The federal trademark record for this phrasing is unusually active and it points in more than one direction. This is not a clearance opinion, this page offers none, and a buyer should have counsel review it independently.
UNITED STATES TRADEMARK RECORD, AS PUBLISHEDNOT LEGAL ADVICE
NEAR MEREGISTEREDSTANDARD CHARACTERS, CLASS 009, NO DISCLAIMER OF RECORD
BURGERS NEAR MEREGISTEREDCLASS 043, RESTAURANT SERVICES, NO DISCLAIMER OF RECORD
URGENT CARE NEAR MEDISCLAIMEDDISCLAIMER OF RECORD READS: URGENT CARE OR NEAR ME
FOOD NEAR ME, 2024REFUSEDFAILURE TO FUNCTION AND MERE DESCRIPTIVENESS; ABANDONED
WHAT A BUYER MUST KNOW TODAYA FOOD NEAR ME APPLICATION IS LIVE: PUBLISHED FOR OPPOSITION JUNE 2026, NOTICE OF ALLOWANCE AUGUST 2026, WITH FOOD DISCLAIMED
NO TTAB DECISION ON THE MERITS OF THE PHRASE EXISTSHAVE COUNSEL REVIEW IT
RegisteredNEAR ME, standard characters
RefusedFOOD NEAR ME, 2024
LiveFOOD NEAR ME, 2026
How they position itLeading with the live application rather than burying it is what a seller does when the rest of the record is genuinely interesting. Anything less invites the buyer to find it alone.
20
What Is Not Published
The holes, named, before a buyer finds them
GetFoodNearMe
GapsMethodHonest
See the gaps
Eight things we
will not print.
No federal source measures how often anyone searches this phrase. No single food access number exists. The newest counts are our own tabulation. A buyer finds all of that quickly, so it goes here instead.
WHAT DOES NOT EXIST, OR CUTS THE OTHER WAYEIGHT
Any official figure for how often this phrase is searched. No agency and no primary publisher measures it.
Any single national food access number. USDA publishes four measures and a range of 11 to 27 percent
Any agency summary of the 2025 driving-distance counts. Those totals on this page are ours, from the published file
Any valid comparison between the 2019 map and the 2025 map
Any reason on the record for why the agency stopped using the older product name
Any standalone restaurant or menu rich result in Google’s documentation
Any ruling that this phrasing is generic, and any board decision on its merits
Any assurance about the trademark position while an application sits under a notice of allowance
WHAT WE DO INSTEADNAME THE SOURCE AND DATE IT
0official search figures
4measures, not one
8gaps we can name
How they position itEvery page in this category rounds a stale number up. The one that traces it, dates it and replaces it is the one a serious buyer finishes reading.